Today, dear friends, is a beautiful, cold Thursday here in central North Carolina. It is also the day that I have finished up my ornaments for The Alice Tree! This morning was such a treat! Getting up, not having to work, and just heading to the craft desk in a quiet apartment with my coffee! I would have posted earlier, but I ended up running into my-oh-my-it’s-time-to-do-errands, and out I went! But now, finally, it’s time to show you the last of the ornaments going on THE ALICE TREE.
First up, one of my favorite Alice illustrations of all time, all stitched up with Alice on one side…
and large white rose petals, a tiny blue rose, and a hint of text on the other side.
Next up, more Alice illustrators, some of the MANY who took on the job of creating their own Alice!
Bessie Pease Gutmann (look at that Gibson girl hair!)…
and her sweet little Alice sitting down behind the white rabbit.
I think I mentioned before that I was interested in putting a few of the illustrators on the tree. There ended up being so many, there was just no way to include them all! It was a most interesting project though! In searching for information about vintage Alice illustrators, I came across another very cool website:
If you want to know just how many Alice illustrators there have been, take a look at their Images tab. Again, it’s more than I have time or space to put on the tree!
Various illustrators’ interpretations of Alice…
I had not heard of Charles Robinson before, but I LOVE his version of the rabbit! Does not the little rabbit look real?
Well, maybe not totally real, but I am CRAZY about the twinkle in his eyes and his dark color! Maybe he reminds me of Coco. Remember Coco? And I love the little white and red teapot!
Now, let’s stop here. I forgot to put dates of birth and death on Maria Kirk, and I am sorry to say I don’t remember them, but just look how young Gwynedd Hudson was when she died! And do you know there’s virtually no information about that on line? I mean, I did look. And I looked. And I looked. And then I had to stop and move on, for the day was getting away from me!
As you see, Margaret Tarrant…
and her precious, dainty white rabbit!
Then, I started thinking a couple of images of vintage book covers would be nice…
and…
And yet another illustrator…
Peter Newell…
and an advertisement for his book.
Last but not least, knowing how I love a touch of RED these days…
Just another gorgeous illustration, apparently “Father Tuck’s Alice in Wonderland.”
The back side with image of the court, more stitches, a bit of text, and — as always — glitter.
Ahhhh, friends, we knew it had to come sooner or later (and many of you may be thrilled about that! …
Yeah, THE END of this lovely book. And the last sentence of the book…
That’s it! All of the ALICE TREE ornaments I intend to make. Now it is time to just ENJOY the tree. And some tea.
Stay tuned for picture of the entire tree tomorrow! In the meantime, just a couple more resources.
Came across this jam-packed-with-photos blog called Love For Books.
And an Alice recording at Librivox (thanks, April, for the idea!).
I have been trying really hard to add more green to my diet. Actually quite a bit more, say, oh, two or three times a day. I do this with the awareness that some greens contain quite a bit of vitamin K, so if you are a heart patient or on blood thinners, that would be something to be aware of as blood thinners cause, well, thinning, and then vitamin K helps with clotting. The two do not necessarily mix!
Lovely, no? I think it’s beautiful! Some juices are sweeter, and my children tend to like those better. Not really sweet, mind you, but with more a predominance of carrots and apples versus this heavier cabbage taste.
Michaela and I watched a movie together called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. It was centered around one man, and then two or three other people, who took on the challenge to go on a juice fast (after a doctor visit, of course), and how much weight they lost (one man started at over 400 pounds) and how they came off prescription medications and had autoimmune diseases disappear. Now, Michaela and I are not going on a fast right now. It is not practical at the moment. But we are drinking more juice. Personally, it thrills me that Michaela is taking an interest in health. She is the one who wanted to watch the move to start with.
Oh, and I can say that adding the color green to your DIET seems to be very good as far as adding some spark to your WARDROBE! I guess there is nothing as slimming as eating more fruits and veggies and cutting back on the buttery, dairy-laden meat and carb dishes!
It goes without saying (but I will say it anyway), the other best weapon against that awful old waist fat is exercise. It’s been hard for me to get to the gym lately, not just because of time but if someone changes the door code and you don’t know about it and are lazy about finding out the new one, well there you go.
I have the gym code now and I could and will go, but little Annie has been looking at me so pitifully lately, I decided to try walking outside more, Annie in tow, and alternating walking and running with her. She loves it!
Little weathered birdhouse spotted on a walk yesterday.
Finally, in FINANCIAL NEWS (ha ha) I wanted to talk about the concept of Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do! For now, my black leather cowboy boots are in the closet and hopefully I will resole them one day. In the meantime, I have these tall Sam and Libby black boots that I will apply the Make It Do and Wear It Out concept to!
Tall boots like this seem to be in style anyway and I think these boots have a few more miles left in them!
I am learning lots of lessons about money in my new life. Not necessarily things I did not already know, but things that I guess are more real when it’s just you. It is in that spirit that I am making do with several things (not just tall boots) that I am not that crazy about. Now, I am crazy about these boots, but I have a face cream that I spent a pretty penny for and then did not like the way it feels. It’s sort of waxy feeling to me, but it is all natural, from Whole Foods. I have found that if I put a few drops of almond oil in with it, it feels 1000 times better! And my fair, freckled skin LOVES oil. It makes me feel good to apply the Use It Up concept to this face cream that has some lovely ingredients in it but did not end up being what I thought it would be!
Finally, THE ALICE TREE. Nothing to post today, except we are on the last chapter today: ALICE’S EVIDENCE. And tomorrow, Thursday, has been declared a catch-up-on-ornaments day, and then we’ll post final Alice Tree pictures on probably Friday! Stay tuned!!
Thank you so much for stopping in today! I meet you at the door this morning, hot tea in hand, posing a question. My oh my, did you know that a Quadrille was a square dance for four couples that had five parts or movements? I did not. I guess I never really read Alice in Wonderland ’til now. Why, I have seen multiple versions in movie form through the years, but did I ever really read the book?
When I saw the title LOBSTER QUADRILLE, I immediately thought creature, which would be my custom, as you know, but who knew that there was a dance going on with lobsters!? I will never view lobsters the same. No. You?
And speaking of whiting shoes in the ocean, I am quite sure that Charles Dickens spoke of blacking — think 19th century London — in at least one of his books. Hard Times comes to mind. Ahh, do we not love these stories that hail from the mind of England and speak of its children and countryside and, as hard as it was, the industrial revolution?
While reading some on line, I came across an interesting-looking web page. Famous Victorians. Will have to explore it a bit further before I recommend it wholeheartedly, but it does appear useful on first glance.
NOW! On to THE ALICE TREE!!
Only one ornament to speak of today (and likely will be adding more info to its back later today) but it’s an important one nonetheless: THE REAL ALICE. Did you know there was a real Alice? A young girl for whom the story was originally written? Yeah.
She’s quite a pretty little girl. Looks like a little sprite to me, ready to run off and dive into a rabbit hole herself!
Today we are reading WHO STOLE THE TARTS? And tomorrow will be our last day of reading and I think I will declare Thursday to be the day that all ornaments are finished up (for I have a few in the works, which time has not permitted me to finish) and placed lovingly on THE ALICE TREE! Do join me on Thursday or Friday when the whole tree, complete and finished, appears on the blog. I will be drinking tea by THE ALICE TREE for the duration of January. Ahhh, lovely!
Glitter…
glitter makes me HAPPY. Especially big pretty silver glitter. (But I also like gold and red and pink and blue.)
And now, a picture to share with you of the latest brooch. Hopefully going into the shop tomorrow with a couple more Renoir brooches.
I love the red hat! A touch of red is very pretty to me these days. Maybe it’s this need I have for color now. Color sometimes equals joy. JOY. Remember?
Finally, I would like to share some pictures of my beautiful grandbaby (according to Michaela, this creature made me a grandma for the first time).
Lazy. Fat. Self-centered. Hungry. I love her to pieces. She’s every grandma’s perfect grandbaby.
She lazily lifted one eyelid to peek at me, wondering if perhaps I had a doggie treat for her, but quickly slammed her eye shut again when she saw the camera.
Monday, Monday. Why? Why are you here so soon? Huh? Oh well. Guess I’ll pull myself up by the bootstraps and prepare myself to work today! Type, type, type. But, you know, with things the way they are, I am very grateful to have my job! There are so many who need jobs right now. Or who need better paying jobs. Or who have a hard time getting to work because of unreliable transportation. And here I am, working at home, full time, with enough to make my rent, and I should keep reminding myself that I have it made. Put a smile on and trudge on, dear girl!
Now.
IN ALICE NEWS…
We are reading chapter 10 at some point today, The Lobster Quadrille. Of course, in the last chapter we were introduced to the delightful little card people! Playing cards! Playing cards who are people. And don’t you love that when the gardeners fell flat to their faces, the Queen could not tell who they were because from the back everyone looked the same? Could have been soldiers, gardeners or anyone!
Is it not grand how Lewis Carroll put all this symbolism into a children’s story? I mean, I personally believe ALICE IN WONDERLAND is full of symbolism. Do you?
Anyway, I have always had a thing for playing cards — and I do not mean the verb “playing cards” because I do not much care for games, but I mean the noun “playing-cards” because they are so pretty and orderly and symbolic — and so I couldn’t wait to get to their part in the story!
So, loving playing cards like I do, when I saw this beautiful blue-flower design on some old cards sitting in The Scrap Exchange, I had to bring them home. I had no idea what I would end up doing with them, but alas they belong on THE ALICE TREE. ‘Twas their destiny!
And here he is, the KING OF HEARTS! He is the one who did not care much for The Cheshire Cat floating ’round in the air, showing only his toothy grin, and he is the one who asked the QUEEN OF HEARTS to please have him removed!
They don’t look like so much hanging on their white yarns, but a number of them hanging randomly all over THE ALICE TREE make quite the lovely show! At least to me they do!
More ornaments to come, dear readers, and please make sure you tune in to see THE ALICE TREE when it is all done!
WELL, NOW, LET’S DO A DIET UPDATE!
I find that the easiest way for me to consume fruits, and sometimes greens, is in a smoothie. I have never been a big fruit eater (unlike my lovely sister, who loves fruit and always has) and I just don’t gravitate towards the fruit bowl. I do, however, love the taste of fruit in smoothies! So it is that I start most every day with a big smoothie that has a variety of frozen fruits and fresh greens — like the kale shown below, yogurt, milk, honey, and my vitamins crushed up and put in. It is quite good!
My Michaela said that this thing, once it was blended up, looked like Play-Doh and milk mixed together and she made quite the face to go with that statement, but I tempted her into tasting it and she ended up saying that she would and could drink it every day if I made it. So did John! So it looks like they will jump on the smoothie bandwagon. Yay. Veggies and fruits into us all three!
AND NOW, FOR OLD TIME’S SAKE…
I felt like it would be nice to be reminded of the words that make up our club song, written back in the ’70s, at the height of my career. And you can bet your cluttery self that I was humming this last week when a STANDING AND STARING spell hit me and I cleaned out my closet. Yeah.
This basket of clothes contains items that will be donated to G.W. Boutique. I just hope I don’t have a relapse and buy any of it back, but I don’t think I will!
Hmmm, puts me in mind of a story. The time I cleaned out the kids toys, because they had a billion little things that I was tired of picking up, and I made a big donation to the thrift store. The kids did not even miss the stuff. UNTIL… We went to the thrift store about a week later and oh my, oh my…
“MAMA, THAT WAS MINE!! WHY IS IT HERE????”
I ended up buying some of the stuff back. Shame on me for not thinking. And I guess, for donating things without their prior knowledge. I don’t anticipate a breakdown like this on my own part in the next week or so, since I have told myself I am cleaning out, but I do expect to replace this outgoing clutter with some “new” incoming clutter as soon as time and money permit. It’s just the way I roll. Or maybe it’s the way the clutter rolls.
Well, have a lovely day, dear friends! More later on ornaments, ALICE, life, and other stuff and nonsense.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll is the focus of today’s ornaments for The Alice Tree! Now, I cannot say for sure that I already knew Lewis Carroll by any other name. Really. Maybe I knew it at some point and forgot, but I don’t think so. This ALICE TREE thing has been quite educational, and I am thinking if we have lovely little invitations sent to the girls who may make up a tea party guest list, including some EDUCATIONAL things would be quite appropriate!
In fact, why don’t I share something educational right now! Here’s the link to a most interesting and beautifully done website about Lewis Carroll: the Lewis Carroll Society of North America. Who knew?
Made to look (somewhat — bear in mind the maker’s busy-ness) like an old frame, I love this picture of young Lewis Carroll. The more I learn of him, the more I want to know.
In jotting some things on the back, to make it look like an old family heirloom, you know, I find that Mr. Carroll was very talented. Mathematician? Wow.
While I would like to post more ornaments at the moment, they will have to wait until the next post, as I have to work today. But I did want you to know that, yes, the author of ALICE IN WONDERLAND will have a place on the tree. And more than just this! More to come, dear friends!
In fashion news, have you seen this G.W. find yet? I do not think so.
This jumper is perhaps the cutest thing I have seen, as far as denim jumpers go. I love the way it looks sort of farm-y. Like overalls.
And the back! So incredibly cute! 4 dollars. I had never seen Lua denim before, and in fact do not find a lot now on line, just one or two things on Ebay!
My oh my, the reporting that comes straight to your computer screen from Lynn’s Rose Cottage!
Is it not, my friends, the most up-to-date reporting on the most important things in life?
Alice trees!
The Standing and Staring Club!
Goodwill Shopping reports!
And now…
I have loved these boots! Good granny, have I loved them. They look so cute with bright, just-to-the-knee dresses! But, my friends, they died last week.
Yep, I have walked a hole right through the sole of my boots. It made me think of Pa Ingalls. I remember when Michaela and I were reading On The Banks of Plum Creek. It seems that Pa walked hundreds of miles with a big hole in his boots! Do you remember that?
At this point I am trying to decide (research is in order, Dear Watson) whether to have them re-soled or to go out looking for a “new” 4-dollar pair at G.W. Boutique. What think ye, friends?
Now. In other up-to-date FASHION NEWS, thank you Mama for my new pantaloons. My dear readers know that I nearly wore out my last pair. (Sort of like the boots. Ahem.) It was shortly after begging my mom for new pantaloons on my public blog that she gifted me with a lovely new pair, stitched up her most beautiful handiwork! I love you dearly, Mama!
Of course, the obvious accessory here would be my homemade Japanese fan. Well, partly homemade. I found these plastic frames at The Scrap Exchange (where else?) and am covering them with the papers of my choice, from my stash of all sorts of paper scraps.
These are the first two, and I am trying to get the hang of tracing the papers so they fit perfectly into their designated spaces on the fans!
But they are sweet, no?
And now, in ALICE IN WONDERLAND NEWS!
Yesterday we read CHAPTER 8 (THE QUEEN’S CROQUET GROUND) and today we read CHAPTER 9 (THE MOCK TURTLE’S STORY)! You will have the weekend to catch up, if you are falling behind, and this weekend I will also catch up on ornaments! The coolest one — cannot wait to finish it and show you, dear readers!
For now, I will share with you the miniature board game, a MICHAELA creation.
Love a black and white photo with lights in it!
And of course the BOARD side of this pretty ornament. Pretty and bright!
I am just finishing up a work break, blogging and posting pictures that were taken first thing this morning. It’s back to the work desk now.
It is hard for me to FOCUS myself sometimes on what I MUST do, but I like this quotation:
Besides the noble art of getting things done,
there is the noble art of leaving things undone.
The wisdom of life consists in
the elimination of nonessentials. ~Lin Yutang, author
Clever it should be, never enough thyme, but I know I cannot say “gotcha” with any of you! You know us here too well! You know our love of herbs and creatures and all things garden, so you must also know, just by reading today’s post title, that we took a little time to process and package up some dried herbs that were gifted to us this past week!
Michaela and John help me strip thyme leaves from the dried stems. The smell was slightly lemony and oh so heavenly!
It was fun to do this, I must say, and I reminded the kids that this is what families used to do daily, just as part of their work and survival, and yet we read in old books and hear in stories from our great-grandparents that it was a bonding time, a pleasurable thing.
“What in the world did they talk about?” asked John.
“Well, they talked about life,” I said, “including their plans for how they’d manage in winter and what they would eat, how their animals were doing and just life.”
John changed the subject to 401K’s and I couldn’t help but laugh, thinking that my children had no idea what it was to sit and talk about helping livestock give birth or storing food through winter, and I am sure that Laura Ingalls did not talk about a 401K while helping Ma in the kitchen. Sigh. I think, though, that my kids probably have more knowledge than they realize about “the old ways.” Their own Pa always provided enough venison to last through the winter, and their Ma sure loved gardening and taking care of rabbits and storing herbs.
Three pretty bottles with three pretty homemade labels now sit in the spice rack. Isn’t it sweet to have things around us that are not just pretty (though pretty they are!) but remind us of sweet friends?
Thyme is a lovely herb, if you have not grown it. It used to thrive in The Wild Little Garden where I had several kinds of thyme. It ran away from where it was planted (exactly what I wanted) and danced between the stepping stones, giving off its delightful scent whenever I’d walk through.
In closing, I wanted to share something that I’ve learned from homeschooling. It is so very easy to get caught in a trap of thinking things must be perfectly staged. You know — like the homeschool magazine covers that showcase “perfection”: 10 children, posed pyramid style, all in homemade clothes with a featured clip of them singing perfect harmony the most recent song they wrote, and mom and dad telling of their most recent addition to the farm and how dad makes all of their furniture from wood off their land and mom makes all their food from scratch and sews all of their clothes from thread she made from plants and animals around their home.
Let me say right now, no offense intended. The point is absolutely, totally not to bash that lifestyle! I would love to have it myself! The point is just that some of us (picture me raising my hand) can get caught up in thinking that if it cannot look like that, then I cannot do it at all. But folks, life happens. Life is sometimes in T-shirts and messy hair. Life is sometimes throwing out a sock after a year because you never did find the matching sock. And then finding it the next day. Life is busy. Life is just what we squeeze out of it. Sometimes we can carve out perfect moments, even if the scene does not look perfect! And that’s one of the things I learned to do.
So it was that I pulled out the card table (because the kitchen table is currently the victim of a standing and staring spell) and “last minute” called John and Michaela to “please help me for 5 minutes” with something. Nothing staged. Nothing fancy. Nothing that will make a magazine cover. And yet, it will live in my mind as one of our perfect moments together.
In your homeschooling, look for the perfect little do-able moments that you can carve out of what may seem like a big, jumbled up, busy mess!
Oh, my, the joys of leading a busy life! Last night, dear friends, I was at another hockey game with coworkers. A girls’ night out! The Carolina Hurricanes played the Philadelphia Flyers, and it was a pretty exciting game! We got to see a fight (not unusual in hockey) that nearly turned into a pile of men on the ice. As well, Canes defenseman Spacek was hit in the chin by a deflected puck. It was painful to even watch!
Ladies, I highly recommend outings, when you can, and I am not saying you have to have ME time away from the kids all the time (although if you need it, that is fine too). What is good about it is the getting away from the house, and all there is to do there. Even a walk in nature WITH the children will change the scenery, help you clear your thoughts and come back with renewed energy! This fun girltime outing was so good for me!
Now, for SHOP news. More pins going into the shop, A Bit of Birdsong, over the course of the day and evening.
Recycled image of Cupidon by Chaplin.
Recycled — or maybe I should say UPCYCLED — image of A Beauty with Doves by Chaplin.
Doves and angel wings, anyone?
Yes, friends, these will make their way into the shop as time permits. It’s not easy some days, running around on breaks, trying to get things done, loving my REAL job working for the hospital and yet knowing I have to be wise and hustle with my time off to keep on top of the other things that make up my busy life.
And now, without another moment’s hesitation, some news on ALICE and THE ALICE TREE!
Yesterday we read chapter 6, today we will read chapter 7, or in other words PIG AND PEPPER and A MAD TEA-PARTY!!
I have some catching up to do on the ornaments, but fear not, that will come! The reading itself has been a good diversion for me. Yesterday I read a chapter right before I took my afternoon nap. Oh, and that TEA PARTY! Poor Alice, being caught in word riddles until she stormed off from the A MAD TEA-PARTY saying it was the most stupid tea party she had ever been to!!
Fortunately for me, and just in time, Michaela’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND board game came home from school. Lo and behold, this little basket of game pieces and game cards looks adorable tucked into the pink tree branches!
Then the board game itself was photographed and printed as a little MINIATURE board game, with a nice picture of CHESHIRE CAT on the back. Pictures of completed ornaments to come.
Well, dear friends, I must wrap this up. Time flies when we are having fun! There are all manner of things on my TO-DO list for today, including organizing my thoughts about a MAD TEA PARTY for Princess of the Universe and her friends. What do you think? I think they would LOVE it!
Do you ever cry in your sleep? I did last night. It woke me up. Ah, do not think I am sad, but just understand that sometimes in my dreams I can see what might have been. It is so real, I could touch it. But I know, even in my dreams, that it did not work out that way. So I dry my tears and go back to sleep. It mostly involves my children and a few other dreams that I had for homelife and hearth.
My garden. I cannot say I have cried in dreams over my garden, but I guess my garden will always live in my heart. I also know that God’s creation of fertile North Carolina earth is beautiful where ever it is, and I can plant a garden somewhere new someday. Still I miss my garden and the time I spent poking around in the soil and breathing in the beautiful smell of pure dirt.
So it is that I am appreciating a wonderful gift today. A gift from a friend’s garden. ‘Twas a basketful of harvested herbs, representing another’s work, dreams, and time spent outside laboring away in one of the most beautiful little gardens ever. My children and I will sit down with this mass of thyme and a mass of dried dill. We will strip the leaves and get lost in the smell of a garden again.
When my dear friend handed me the basket, it was so much more than dried herbs. It was a sharing of her own hard work. It was an “I’m sorry that things did not go like you wanted them to.” It was a hug. It was faith and hope. She offered me to come putter around in her potting shed any time I want to. It was friendship.
Drying tears. Drying herbs.
Thankfully I kept the beautiful little glass spice jars with their perfect cork tops, purchased last year for a co-op about medicine in Colonial times.
The pretty “medicine tool box.”
Medicine. And pretty medicine containers . (I spent hours on those steps. )
Anyway, will be sure and show you the finished product and share some fun pictures of the storing!
Now, as promised, I put a few more ALICE ornaments on THE ALICE TREE to finish up CHAPTER 4.
Nearly bedtime (or way past). Long day spent working, shuttling kids, doing paperwork, making pins and cooking. Tired? Yes. Content? Very.
Yesterday we read Chapter 5. Today we will read Chapter 6. So stay tuned for the next ornaments to go on THE ALICE TREE.
John Tenniel ornament.
Enjoy this day! It will be another busy day here, but I am trying to just pursue JOY. Here’s to JOY.
One joy dispels a hundred cares. ~oriental proverb
Joys are our wings; sorrows our spurs. ~Richter
Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass. ~John Steinbeck
I am the mother of four delightful children: a 23-year-old son, a 20-year-old son, a 17-year-old son, and a bright and bubbly 13-year-old daughter. I share an apartment home with my 17-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. My little home on the internet is called Rose Cottage because of my love for gardening, roses, and all things romantic and Victorian. Welcome.
I'm a North Carolina girl and I love sharing North Carolina links and information. I do medical transcription from home. My hobbies include making sweet little dolls from clay who are named and have their own stories to tell. I also make old-fashioned brooches. These are for sale in my Etsy shop.
For 13 years continuously, I homeschooled some or all of our four children, but the time came that our homeschool had to be closed. It was the end of a beautiful chapter in my life. I will always be a strong supporter of homeschooling and I will continue to review books and maintain my homeschool website, The Healthy Homeschool.
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.
William Henry Channing
1810-1884
What You Do
Sow a thought, reap an action.
Sow an action, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.
…
Stay tuned!!
for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
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